Blog Tour: Guest Post - Witchling by Ari Harper

Wednesday, 21 August 2013

Today, I'm part of the Witchling by Itching for Books. I'm really glad to be part of this tour and this post. My stop is a Guest Post of 'Book Structure' I have always been interested as how one author would structure a book and I'm really excited to show you this one. I hope y'all enjoy it. But first here is a little more about this book...

Nera is a normal teenage girl living in Ireland-or so she thought. Her world is forever changed when she discovers that she is descended from a long line of witches. To her horror she finds she is the one that is supposed to stop the curse that has taken the life of every girl before her. As if that isn't enough, she must learn to use magic and her trainer is a man named Bones. He is the son of Mari, Queen of the Witches, and a god. It is Bones that has been entrusted to teach her the skills she needs to stay alive, which wouldn't be so bad if he didn't have an uncanny knack for pushing her buttons. Can Nera learn what she needs while staying immune to the charms of the man that gets under her skin at every opportunity?

{Guest Post} Book Structure

I often get asked how I structure by stories.

Truth is I don't. I'm what is commonly called a 'pantser'. Basically I write by the seat of my pants.

My mind is rarely my own. Thoughts and plots constantly race around driving me crazy at the best of times. Often I ignore the jumble, other times I write down a few paragraphs and let it churn away to see if anything comes of it. Some of those ideas make it to a book.

When I started Witchling, the same short paragraph had been running around in my mind for months and I was at my wits end. I never had any intention of being a writer, I was more than happy to read other peoples stories.

Finally I decided that if I wanted to be able to sleep at night I would have to do something about it. So I sat at my computer and let it all pour out. My characters take over and I do what they want. It's their story after all and they have the most to contribute.

I envy writers that plot every chapter and know exactly where they are going. I have tried repeatedly to do this and it just doesn't work for me. I struggle to get past chapter one this way so I stick to what works best for me.

In Book Three, Treason, I tried to make my characters do what I wanted. Bad idea, they slapped me into shape very quickly and I no longer even bother to try.

If you want to write, do what works best for you. And write what you know, always. I've had a passion of all things paranormal for ever so it made sense for me to pursue this genre.

And my best piece of advice, 'never ever give up.'

It took me five years to get Witchling good enough for a publisher to contract it. Keep an eye out for Book Two, Changling out later this year and 'Treason' Book Three early next year.

Also here is the Hint for the Scavenger Hunt: Question
#8Who comes to visit Nera on the roof
of Jasper's home?

About the Author

Ari Harper never wanted to grow up.
To offset the limitations of aging ungracefully, she created her own set of unique worlds where she can be and do whatever she wants.

Gods, witches and demons surround Ari while she spins her magic, doing mainly what they tell her to do. Given a chance, she prefers to work amongst chaos, which is good because she is constantly surrounded by children, all clamoring for attention. Some of them end up in her stories, some of them even get to die grisly deaths or be cast away to another realm.

I don't write, but I imagine if I did, I'd have to plan it all out. I'm too much of a control freak. ;) It's great to get Ari's thoughts though. It's always interesting to hear about an author's approach to writing. Great guest post!

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About Me

Hi I'm Emma and I'm a 20- something year old bookworm. A Secondary School Librarian by day, introducing young readers to the wonder of the literary world. A Reader/blogger by night, reading my favourites including Holly Bourne, Lisa Heathfield, Shea Ernshaw, Sarah J.Maas, Emily Suvada and many more. What I love is that I continue to discover new authors everyday. I was honoured to be Shortlisted for Champion of Social Media UKYABA 2018! Please do read the ramblings of all the books I discover in my little corner of the internet. Feel free to say hi to me on Twitter and Instagram too below. Never Judge a Book by it's Cover established in 2012